CHAPEL HILL - The emergency cots included in the IFC's proposed new men's shelter continue to raise problems for neighbors and at least one council member

The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service will return to the Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday with its updated request to build a new 52-bed men's transitional shelter at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. near Homestead Road The plan still includes 17 overnight cots for homeless men who would not be part of the IFC's longer-term transitional program.

Town staff are recommending approval of the project with a "Good Neighbor" plan. The plan would create a group representing the IFC, university, town, nearby neighborhoods and businesses and shelter residents to work out any future problems.

Council member Matt Czajkowski has proposed an alternative resolution approving the project without the 17 emergency cots.

His resolution would also require the IFC to close its existing men's shelter at Rosemary and Columbia streets downtown within four years. If the IFC wants to add emergency beds to the new shelter in the future, it would have to return to the council for a modification of its permit.

Czajkowksi asked the IFC in March to consider removing the overnight cots, which have been a source of contention between the IFC and neighbors of the site. IFC Executive Director Chris Moran said the agency would drop the 17 cots if another emergency shelter provider came forward, but they remain in the most recent permit application.

The emergency cots meet an important community need, since homeless people would have no other place to go for shelter, Moran has said. They would be available only in cases of major storms, excessive heat, or in temperatures below 40 degrees.

The IFC will continue to work with the neighbors if the project gets approved and has already agreed to help develop the Good Neighbor plan, Moran said. It would aim to control litter and loitering, come up with crime-prevention strategies, offer community education, mediate disputes, outline rules for residents of the program and respond to complaints.

As proposed, the IFC would create a Community House Advisory Committee to make annual reports to the Town Council on adherence to the Good Neighbor Plan for the first two years of the new shelter. After that the council would decide whether to continue the reports and how often.

Mark Peters, who has led much of the neighbors' opposition to the site, said the Good Neighbor plan should be a part of the permit application and needs to have an enforcement mechanism.

"Neighbors deserve a meaningful set of stipulations and a good neighbor plan that has teeth in the SUP. But they will get neither," he said. "This good neighbor plan is a joke, a terrible joke. It only lasts for two years. There are no consequences if serious impacts occur. The SUP and the lease need to contemplate and include consequences for the entire lease term of 60 years."

Community House would include a free clinic for program residents, and residents of the transitional program would be required to be sober. Homeless people who use one of the 17 overnight emergency cots would not be screened for drugs or alcohol. Those using the emergency cots would be interviewed off-site and be required to show a photo ID.

The IFC would continue its current security policy at Community House which requires all outside doors to be locked between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. every day, security cameras, no visitor without prior approval, no walk-ins, and participation in the Neighborhood Watch.

Town Manager Roger Stancil will also present his budget proposal at Monday's meeting, and the council will receive reports from the Downtown Partnership, Community Home Trust, and Orange Water and Sewer Authority.